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I'm a 40 year old married first time buyer (wife not working), currently living with my parent's. I'm looking to buy a house worth no more than £400k. I have £275k savings and am thinking of using £240k of that as a deposit, so £35k remaining for stamp duty, fees etc, plus a bit left for emergencies.

Looking at mortgages, if i were to borrow £160k on a 10 year fixed rate deal with a 10 year term i would be repaying about £1,500 per month. I earn just under £3,000 per month after tax. So in 10 years i would have paid off my mortage with a guaranteed monthly payment.

I'd need to buy some furnishings, such as sofa, dining table, wardrobes. The only think i'd be taking from home would be the bed, clothes and toiletries.

Does the scenario above sound smart or foolish to you? There's no reason why i couldn't extend the mortgage terms to 20 or 25 years (paying about £850 a month for 20 years instead of £1,500 for 10). But the idea of paying off the mortgage in just 10 years, with the certainty of how much i would pay a month, sounds quite attractive to me. What am i missing?

Your stamp duty liability as a first time buyer will be around £5k on a £400k purchase price.

There is no issue taking out a 10 year mortgage as such, you will probably be paying over the odds as there are not many 10 year fixes available and the rates will be higher than a 5 year fix. But I suppose what you are losing with a more expensive 10 year fix you are potentially saving by taking out say a 5 year fix and rates rising in the interim.

The only other potential issue is that in a 10 year fix, if your circumstances change, you are tied in with hefty charges to get out of the deal.

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I'd research how much bills in your area and for the size house are going to cost (council tax, utilities, insurance, phone etc) then see how much you have left over for food and disposable. It might be worth going for th 20 years and overpaying to total to the £1500 (if your mortgage terms allow) that way you can still pay it off in ten years but if something happens and your minimum payment is only £850 rather than £1500 so you're less likely to miss a payment. I hope that makes sense!

I'd research how much bills in your area and for the size house are going to cost (council tax, utilities, insurance, phone etc) then see how much you have left over for food and disposable. It might be worth going for th 20 years and overpaying to total to the £1500 (if your mortgage terms allow) that way you can still pay it off in ten years but if something happens and your minimum payment is only £850 rather than £1500 so you're less likely to miss a payment. I hope that makes sense!

I've scrapped the notion of paying off a mortgage in a 10 year period. Will go for 20-25 instead. I like the idea of paying the same monthly amount for the next decade. Plus, interest rates are so low at the moment they can only rise.

I strongly recommend you take a longer term as suggested. Myself and my husband take home £4600 a month and our mortgage is £1500 a month with council tax and bills taking this to £2000 a month. We took a smaller mortgage term 16 years. I honestly don't think its doable earning £3k.

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